Beyond Earth: Rising Tide improves diplomacy, adds sci-fi lore

When Civilization: Beyond Earth was released, I wanted to like it. Firaxis Games, the team behind the turn-based strategy game, has an impeccable pedigree. The developer is responsible for the phenomenal Civilization series and its latest science fiction-flavored title was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. The only problem was that Beyond Earth felt too bare bones compared to the group’s past efforts. Diplomacy was too simplistic and the fiction lacked the lore to make the world feel concrete.

Thankfully, they’re fixing those flaws with the Rising Tide expansion pack. The upcoming add-on improves on several areas of the game, coloring in the parts that needed depth. The most immediate change I noticed during my 150-turn hands-on preview was the new civilization.Duncan Hughes is the leader of the NorthSea Alliance, a colony that specializes in seasteading.

LIFE IS BETTER DOWN WHERE IT’S WETTER: I took control of the North Sea Alliance, which is lead by Duncan Hughes. That colony stayed on Earth a while longer than others and specialized on building their cities on the ocean. This twist opens up a whole other world of opportunities. Now, the seas aren’t just a zone for troop transport and trade. It can now be colonized and it’s full of resources.

“Water is separate but equal” to land, said Andrew Fredriksen, lead producer for Rising Tide. “Water cities have different states. Water generates less unhealth. It produces more energy.”

Because there are resources such as Firaxite, coral and float stones in the ocean, the team had to overhaul the visuals when it came to the water. Players can now peer beneath the surface and see the chitin, tubers and other treasures of the deep. It also gives an outline on the spots a player’s floating city can initially travel. Yup, that’s right. Seasteading colonies can move, but the trip one tile over takes two turns and players can’t produce buildings. The shift is how the NSA expands its borders.

Although life on the ocean sounds easier, it does have its hazards. Players still have to be wary of aggressive aliens. They also must worry about ferrying their troops across the water. They should be escorted by patrol boats and other naval units, which are built faster by the NSA. It’s one of their perks.

In the open seas, they’ll encounter new aliens. Fredriksen there are at least four, which includes the Makara, a creature that can go on land and sea. There are also hydracoral, which are mostly docile monsters that can act like a barrier blocking off parts of the ocean. One of the small but appreciable improvements Firaxis made is the raiding of alien nests. Players have to specifically hit a button that removes that creature-spawning tile. That move harvests the resources and makes that colony a target for the natives.

There are a lot of resources lurking under the sea all this time. Who knew?

DIPLOMACY OVERHAULED: That transparency is a guiding force behind a lot of the new mechanics in Rising Tide. The concept takes a central role in diplomacy, which is the other pillar of improvement in the expansion pack. This time around, Firaxis outlines each relationship level that each colony has with another. They can be at a state of war, sanctioned, neutral, cooperative or allied. Players will always know where they stand with another civilization.

Introducing a new mechanic, the team added a resource called Diplomatic Capital. Over the course of the campaign, other factions will ask for open borders in exchange for this. Diplomatic Capital can be used for agreements that let players borrow a perk of another civilization though it’s a toned-down version. They can even use Diplomatic Capital to adjust the personality traits of their leader. This is where Rising Tide gets interesting.

Because Firaxis isn’t working with established figures, players have free rein to build the traits of their leaders as they see fit. There are four categories: indefatigable, political, domestic and military. There are dozens of perks for each one. For example, the humanitarian perk on the domestic trait lets players boost the food yield of cities by 8 percent. That number can be increased but it will cost more Diplomatic Capital.

Along with the personality traits, there is a separate Affinity that players have to guide their civilization through. This time around, there are more nuanced Affinities players can choose from. In one instance, they can be pure Supremacy and get a +1 to production from node improvements, but interestingly enough, they can go the Supremacy-Harmony path, which gives a boost of health for every hybrid military unit.

Lastly, there’s a meter that measures respect and fear. These will partially motivate other leaders when it comes to negotiations. If players build a large military and flex that muscle against other civilizations, that will make the fear meter jump up. Respect reflects more of a relationship history. If players have consistently allied with country, they’re more likely to approve agreements and other deals.

Arshia Kishk leads the Middle Eastern faction, which had a different approach to space travel.

A RICHER, COMPELLING WORLD: The last major improvement I noted was the lore of Beyond Earth. Because this sci-fi title doesn’t have history to inform and give texture to the world, Firaxis had to create it using interesting backstory for each faction. The NSA learned to seastead on Earth before traveling to the new planet. Meanwhile, the Al Falah lead by Arshia Kishk is a Middle Eastern civilization that traveled without the benefit of cryogenics. That means she and other members of her people have never been on a planet as each generation lived and died on the ship before arriving to their destination. Because they lived on the ship, their perk allows them to be more efficient converting resources.

Adding more concreteness to the world are items called artifacts. They can be obtained through rifling through resource pods, by raiding alien nests or other actions. Items such as the Silver-point Navigation Gyroscope or the Soap Seed have a history to them. The gyroscope reportedly points to earth while the Soap Seed is a special alien item found on the planet. Players can combine the artifacts and unlock new perks, unit upgrades and even buildings. They’re almost like Great Persons or Great Works in Civilization V.

Another element that adds a layer of storytelling to Rising Tide is the quest system. In Beyond Earth, it was novel in the first playthrough but the same scenarios kept repeating on subsequent campaigns. Firaxis tried to add variety by pushing more Affinity-specific quests. There are also six marvel quests that players can discover. They have huge rewards. There’s one quest for each biome and one in the water. They randomly generate for each campaign but there’s usually two at the most.

The one I ran into involved the Hydracoral Overmind. Once I found it, the creature unlocks a mission where players investigate similar aliens. The resulting power-up lets players see through hydracoral on the planet giving them a tactical advantage. They’re easy to complete and every faction can obtain it. Meanwhile, other questlines take place over generations and players will have to deal with descendants who may be decades or even centuries apart.

From what I played, the Rising Tide is shaping up to be a richer Beyond Earth experience. It’s an add-on that could fulfill this entry’s enormous promise.